R. v. AG; R. v. v I; Court of Appeal

We are presently instructed in two separate but identical cases, both of which concern a European national. In each case our client is a truck driver working for a European Haulage business and driving a truck into the UK. Each was convicted of Dangerous Driving by a UK court and disqualified from driving in the UK for a determinate period and until he had passed a mandatory UK driving test. In each case the driving disqualification has ended but neither client can recover his UK driving qualification. UK driving tests are only available to UK residents and neither driver is a UK resident. They are however permitted to drive in Europe.  In due course a new European Convention on Driving Disqualifications will take effect and when it does these disqualifications will retrospectively apply to our clients so that they then lose their European licences. The requirement that they pass a UK drivers test breaches Articles 7 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 45 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Free Movement of Labour). Both cases are presently before the Court of Appeal, seeking a Declaration of Incompatibility under the Human Rights Act 1998.